Tag: food

Counterintuitive

Have you ever noticed how the majority of the world’s standards and practices go against the Biblical and wise solutions and messages of Christ? More to the point, society teaches us the very ideas that poison our mind, body, and spirit. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but hear me out. What we eat, how we think, what we do with our bodies— there’s this indoctrination of indulgence and gluttony. We also glorify a lazy and mediocre existence. For argument’s sake, let’s drop the morality perspective and focus on the physiological. The mind, body and soul are all connected, which means how we treat one impacts the rest.

Mind

How’s your thought life? Do you hold yourself in a positive light or do you allow others to tear you down and believe their lies? Stinkin’ Thinkin’— as Joyce Meyer calls it— is detrimental to your wellbeing. The beauty is that we can control what we choose to think about. Of course, that take a conscious and present effort. Distraction is the ultimate slippery slope to a junky thought life. When your thoughts are negative, you’re less likely to take care of yourself, both physically and spiritually. This feeds directly into how you treat your body.

Body

Physical activity is incredibly important. It helps us to reconcile the mind junk and hold on to the positive truths. Food is also key. What are you eating? Fun fact, your stomach contains neurons, which acts as your second brain. So when you eat junk, it messes with your brain. When we talk about mental health, it’s impossible not to connect your dietary habits with your mind because your stomach quite literally contributes to it. As for the soul connection, if you’re out there using your body like a playground with others, friends there are major spiritual implications.

Soul

Have you ever wondered why we call liquor ‘spirits’? Alcohol isn’t inherently bad, I mean Jesus turned water into wine after all. But context matters as does the spiritual implications of drugs (I could go on but this post is pretty long already). Sex in its proper context is great! However, when it’s as common as a handshake, as the saying goes, if you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. And I’m not just talking about diseases. Though our society teaches a “free spirit” and “sex positive” attitude, it fails to teach you the spiritual pitfalls that come from that lifestyle. There is a spiritual transference that occurs and you’re essentially giving pieces of yourself whenever you partake. No, this isn’t meant to shame you into celibacy. In fact, this isn’t about shame at all. But notice how these three things cycle back together. A broken mind leads to a broken body thus leading to a broken spirit, or any combination of the three. So why is this important?

In Context

Because God created us, our minds, bodies, and souls cannot be explained without Him. We are like his custom-built machines, which mean He’s the ultimate User Manual. So if we stand a chance to flee from our flesh, the world and the opposition, we have to continually read and understand the User Manual AKA the Bible. When we engage in pleasure-seeking activities that exist outside of His will for us, we suffer. No, not because He’s punishing us, it’s because we aren’t operating as intended. It’s like putting diesel fuel in a gas tank. You’re going to mess up the engine. We must stop perceiving discipline and obedience as punitive but as the guidelines for healthy operation. Guard your mind, body, and soul accordingly so that you can work as God intended. He made you for a purpose.

Today’s Question

Who or what is in control of your “machinery”

Isaiah 47

1“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust. For your days of sitting on a throne have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.

3You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity.”

4Our Redeemer, whose name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, is the Holy One of Israel.

5“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.

6For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly.

7You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’ You did not reflect on your actions or think about their consequences.

8“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure. You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’

9Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment: widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic.

10“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’

11So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared.

12“Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.

13All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.

14But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all; their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.

15And all your friends, those with whom you’ve done business since childhood, will go their own ways, turning a deaf ear to your cries.

“If we treat food like medicine, we can heal our bodies with God’s Good stuff.”~ Jon Barnes

Offended

Stop being offended by someone’s message, blessing, or food that doesn’t belong to you. If you can’t eat that meat, be quiet, be still, and leave it alone on the table. Take the mild milk you need until you grow some teeth. Try using a blender if it helps you to swallow the truth.

Miserable

Stop blaming God for your miserable choices that have plagued your life of disobedience and start praying and working to correct your mistakes of laziness towards God and the Good Work you should be doing. Help people find God through your basic lifestyle of love, kindness, and food choices.

Treatment

If we treat the Bible like Real Food from God, then we can be blessed at all times, forever! Grow the proper perspective of God with each meal you eat, listen to, and study the scriptures. Your perspective is quite clear in your choice of action, not just words and fake gestures! The more time you spend using God’s commandments, your love will overflow onto others. The more means you become, the less God we see because you have changed your diet to junk food.

Today’s Question

How do you make yourself crave the Good Stuff when you don’t open the Bible to read it?

Enjoy The Reading

Deuteronomy 15

Release for Debtors

15 “At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money.2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the Lord’s time of release has arrived.3 This release from debt, however, applies only to your fellow Israelites—not to the foreigners living among you.

4 “There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession.5 You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.6 The Lord your God will bless you as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 “But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.8 Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need.9 Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord, you will be considered guilty of sin.10 Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.11 There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need.

Release for Hebrew Slaves

12 “If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant[a] and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.

13 “When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed.14 Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you.15 Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.

16 “But suppose your servant says, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and he has done well with you.17 In that case, take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door. After that, he will be your servant for life. And do the same for your female servants.

18 “You must not consider it a hardship when you release your servants. Remember that for six years they have given you services worth double the wages of hired workers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.

Sacrificing Firstborn Male Animals

19 “You must set aside for the Lord your God all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks.20 Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God each year at the place he chooses.21 But if this firstborn animal has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or if anything else is wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the Lordyour God.22 Instead, use it for food for your family in your hometown. Anyone, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat it, just as anyone may eat a gazelle or deer.23 But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

“We create our Storms of Uncertainty in our lives when we do not depend on God to understand His Plan to use natural solutions to normal problems; rather than randomly popping pills and drugs for quick unnatural energy and solutions. ~ Jon Barnes

Daily Stress

We tend to feed daily stress with fatty foods, sugar and coffee for breakfast and greasy foods for lunch and dinner, which smells like it in the bathrooms on our jobs. The fast pace, quick fix, and fake foods we eat are taking a toll on our ability to think clearly and function properly. Lack of exercise and motivation feeds into our empty stomach that look so bloated with pregnancy of emptiness.

Emptiness

Stress is an empty, colorless, odorless, mindless process that we become entrapped by when we do not believe that God is in control of our lives, as we make our own crazy plans, pop pills, and eat junk foods. God teaches us how to eat well, feel better, exercise faith, practice love, and show compassion, so that our bodies and minds become full of Good nutrients and bio chemicals for our minds to obey God’s lifestyle. Exercise with God’s mindset to build a better you.

Fullness

It is better to operate on an empty stomach, full of God’s Will, than to be full of deceit and disobedience. God will surely feed you and reward your Good hard work and give you ideas that make sense, without pills, additives, preservatives, sugars, caffeine, and other harmful chemicals that clog up your neural pathways to God’s thinking and ways. Consult God and your Doctor to learn how to take better care of yourself to minimize your exposure to unwanted chemicals, pills, bad foods, and ideas. Stay full of God and His wisdom of love, mercy, and grace!

Today’s Question

Are you eating anything that is put on your plate and following the crowd to the edge of the grave with stress, bad food, misguided thoughts and drugs?

Philippians 3

No Confidence in the Flesh

3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Following Paul’s Example

15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

“Life is Great but your priceless Soul is Gold and would you Give it Up for a piece of meat to eat; you’ve been sold? Enjoy Your Priceless Meal” ~ Jon Barnes

Invite the Poor

We are all poor, when God is not leading and guiding us to understand his ways and commandments. We are all worse than the a dirty person, who has not washed for a month, with body smell that churns your stomach to puke, if we don’t know God! Invite yourself to God’s Grace and humble yourself in His space to taste the love of God at the table. The Food is Free!

Your Rotten Meat

Why would you serve people your rotten meat, which you left out, uncooked, spoiled, and on your street? You picked it up, cooked it in your house, hoping no one could smell or tell, that your actions are that of a liar, headed straight for hell. Your guests are all drunk and drugged up so they can’t really see, the meal they are about to eat, came from a dead person hanging from a tree! What is in your stomach, what’s in your heart, you are about to see? You are rich indeed, so why is everyone in need? Your fist are so tight, while thinking everything and everyone is alright, your soul is probably hell bound, tonight.

Innocent Blood

When you shed innocent blood, your sin rises above, and it is like eating the body of a dead corps. Your mind and heart has no remorse, the blame and shame you pin on someone else, of course. The senses are numb, you smell like dung, and your friends look to find you, as they run. You chose this table to eat, the meat that’s off the street, your evil inside can finally reside with you in hell for eternity. Or you can work for God, eating Fabulous Food For Free! Enjoy Your Meal!

God is Good, so you choose the menu and facility by the quality lifestyle you led with or without God!

Today’s Question

Can you see the people in hell right now gnashing their teeth, wailing, moaning, and trying to tell you to change your wicked ways or do you see the Fabulous Free Food God has For You and For Me?

Enjoy Today’s Reading

Luke 16New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Additional Teachings

16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

“You are what you eat and if you give a crap about yourself, you will do better. Kale Yeah!” ~ Jon Barnes

Kale Yeah

The Earth is full of plants, trees, vegetables, herbs, and other natural things that were designed to help us, feed, heal,grow, and procreate to multiply on the earth. Kale is 20 times more powerful than spinach and so I enjoy finding the best things to eat, drink, and supplement my daily nutrition. It is my responsibility to eat the right things.

Nature’s Timing

All things are recycled and reusable on the earth, even your soul, which will be burned in hell or chilling with God. Your choice… oops, no it’s God’s Choice. You see He is the one that will choose you, if you are honest. Your timing, honesty, obedience, and connection to God and His Holy Spirit is your ticket with repentance. In love, God knows your heart and judges us accordingly and He already knows your outcome, Now. Now Then, do you get a clear picture of your fate?

In The Can

God has it all in the Can and He Can do all that He Chooses to do, without your help. Can He? Kale yeah! LOL The Master Creator is above all, knows all, and is everywhere all at the same time. Time is held in His hand like a far, far distant planet, un imaginable by mankind. We are allowed to learn, grow, and multiply, eating the crumbs off of the Master’s table to get a feel of love, independence, choice, and death. We don’t know these things because we refuse to read the Bible and we listen to information from second hand sources. Yes, we humans tend to be lazy, ignorant, and fake, hoping to pull one over on God Almighty.

Today’s Question

Are you trying to pull a fast one on God? LOL! It won’t work!

A side note:

Don’t take my word for it, read about God yourself.

Fake Christians will be judged more harshly, burning a little hotter than the norm.

Kale Yeah!

The funny thing is, I normally write my comments before reading the scriptures and when I read the scriptures, I see the Hand of God in what I wrote. Bless God.

Enjoy today’s reading

Mark 8New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

8 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said,2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”

5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.

“Seven,” they replied.

6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so.7They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them.8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.9 About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away,10 he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.”13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod

14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

“Twelve,” they replied.

20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

They answered, “Seven.”

21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.26 Jesus sent him home, saying,“Don’t even go into[a] the village.”

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus Predicts His Death

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

The Way of the Cross

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Manwill be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”